Meditations for a Meaningful Christmas

By Bishop Jonathan S. Ferriol

December 5  |  Humility

“And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself…”
Philippians 2:8

The first time, pride reared its ugly head, it corrupted God’s most trusted angel. Lucifer fell. Overnight the most beautiful emissary of God transformed into a malevolent being of evil and wickedness. Pride turned Satan into God’s adversary! (Ezekiel 28:13-15, 1 Peter 5:8). C.S Lewis, the respected British apologist said, “Pride is the complete anti-God state of mind.”

God knew what pride wrought on his angels. It is going to be against His goodness to let pride continue wreaking havoc and destroying His creation. So God condemned pride and its purveyor – Satan, while demonstrating humility and lowliness (1 Peter 5:5).

Jesus is the epitome of humility – the kind that the Apostle Paul stresses that we followers of Jesus must have. Despite His knowledge of His true self as God for being the Son of God, yet, Jesus didn’t “consider it equality something to be grasped, but made himself nothing and he took the nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” (Philippians 2:6-7)

Humility, therefore, begins from a place of recognition and appreciation for one’s God-given worth or value. But it doesn’t stop there. It moves up to that place where one uses his worth to enrich the lives of others. That’s exactly, what Jesus Christ did. He recognized His true identity as the Son of God and eventually, he sacrificially gave it up in service of humanity and for His chosen ones. Again, C.S Lewis said, “True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.” I couldn’t agree with him more.

On the other hand, false humility which is pride, is a reduction of one’s self worth and value. It is self-demotion. It is discontentment for God’s gift. And it is the breeding ground of covetousness, jealousy and the last step before one’s downfall. It is a vice masked as virtue. A poison to one’s self!

As God’s children, humility should be one of our most outstanding traits. Keep recognizing and thanking God for what He has done in our behalf. He has given us worth and value that no riches of this world could ever equal. But more than that, we ought to display our true humility through giving more our lives, our resources and everything about us to the cause of Christian service. That’s what humility is and that is how we ought to practice it!